The Darkest Road
by Draio
Summary: Annabeth lived a sad life. Bullied, with a stepmother who despised her and a father who she could never trust. But after a field trip accident, a new boy arrives. Dark, cruel and different from anyone she's ever met, he quickly pulls her into his world of murder and darkness. Maybe it takes becoming part of his world to learn the truth to her own. AU, Dark Percabeth
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, I know I don't need anymore stories on my plate, but this one has been driving me nuts for a while now. **

**Warning****: This story is a really dark, AU, so if you don't like that stuff, just back out instead of leaving hateful reviews. Makes everyone's lives a little easier. **

* * *

Annabeth Chase tiptoed into her living room, the screaming from her parents bedroom nearly drowning out the heavy storm outside. She pushed her thick glasses back up her nose, though she was shaking so badly they near instantly slipped right back down.

The screaming from the door just across from her was terrifying. It's not like her parents didn't fight. It had almost always been a daily thing, where they would yell at each other for a bit until her father drove off to who knows where and return late the next day to yell at his wife some more, the cycle going on and on.

But tonight was different.

Annabeth felt scared.

Her father, in his routine fights with her mother, would usually just snap at the woman for things Annabeth didn't understand while her mother would try to calm him before he would say something that would make her snap back. No, tonight was different.

He was _screaming _at his wife.

Annabeth had never heard anyone in her near seven years of life sound so angry. So cold. So heartless. It was terrifying. It made Annabeth want to run, hide, just get _away, _but she didn't move from her spot in front of her parents door.

But that wasn't the worst.

Annabeth's mother was crying.

It was muffled slightly from door, but it was there. And it made Annabeth mad. Her mother should never cry. She was too wonderful, too beautiful. Suddenly there was a loud slap, making Annabeth jump.

The door flew open then, her mother running out. There was a large hand print on her tear-stained cheeks. She ran pass her daughter and into the kitchen, the slam of the front door following. Annabeth stood there for a moment, frozen in shock, before running out after the woman. The rain was so heavy that the child's blonde locks were near instantly heavy and plastered to her face the moment she stepped outside.

She could barley see her mother backing out of the driveway, the rain and lightning so disorienting that the headlights were barley visible. Her glasses we fogged so badly she was near blind.

"Mom!" Annabeth yelled. Tears leaked down her cheeks, mixing with the rain on there descent. "Mom no! Please don't leave!"

But whether her mother didn't here her or care, she still backed out of the driveway and rode off, leaving her sobbing child behind.

"Annabeth!" Her father called from inside. "Get in this house this instant!"

The little girl turned to see her father glaring at her from the kitchen, a women she's never seen before next to him. They both looked a bit frazzled, her father without a shirt and the woman in a robe.

"Mom left, Dad!" she cried, the rain still beating down on her tiny frame. "She was crying, and she left! Isn't it bad to drive right now? What if she gets hurt in the rain? We have to go get her!"

"Freddie," the woman looked irritated, regarding Annabeth in a way that made her feel even smaller and more helpless than she already was. "She's going to wake up the whole neighborhood."

"I know, April," her father says before lunging into the rain and grabbing Annabeth by the wrist in a bruising grip. He pulled her inside, not seeming to care that she was still sobbing.

He slammed the door shut before dumping her on one of the kitchen chairs. The woman stood back with a disgusted look on her face as she regarded the soaked and tearful child. Annabeth's father keeled down in front of her, a smile on his face that she's never seen before.

"Now Annie," he says slowly, as if if he spoke too quickly she wouldn't hear. "I need you to know something very important."

Annabeth stared at him, wide-eyed and helplessly confused.

"Me and your mother," he continued "Well, we haven't been doing so well. We fight. A lot. She's a bad woman, Annie. She lies, cheats and is just not the woman I married anymore. She's not your mother anymore."

"But Da-"

"Let me speak, Annabeth!" He snapped, cutting her off. "It's horribly rude to interrupt."

Annabeth stayed silent, too scared too even move.

"Now what happened tonight, whatever you think you saw or you heard, forget it. It isn't important. It'll only stir trouble. Now we don't want that do we?"

She remained silent.

"Answer me, Annabeth!" He snapped. The woman, April, snorted from behind him.

"N-no, we wouldn't." She stuttered, frightened by his outburst.

He smiled in that weird way again, and Annabeth was starting to really hate it. "Good. Now you will go to bed like a good girl. Then in the morning you will go to school and never tell any of your little friends about this whole incident. You will never speak of this again to anyone. Right Annie?"

She nodded.

"Good girl. Now do as your told and get to bed. Now."

She couldn't get out of that kitchen fast enough. She burst into her room and scurried under her blankets, praying that this was all some horrible, twisted dream. That her mother never ran off, her father didn't give her those scary smiles and that woman was never here.

But when she awoke in the morning, her mother was still gone. When she passed her father in the kitchen, he gave her that scary smile. The woman sat at the barstool, trying her best to ignore the child.

Annabeth trudged to her bus stop, when a sight made her pause. Two leaves, connected by a tiny branch, scrapped across the sidewalk in front of her. She ran and snatched them up, almost as if she was pulled to them. One leaf was a rich, beautiful green, not yet affected by the chilly season. The other leaf, on the other hand, was pure evidence of the autumn. Bright red and wrinkling up, it was just as beautiful as its partner.

Something tugged on the back of Annabeth's mind. A dream. Someone's eyes. Yes, last night she had had a dream.

She vaguely remembered it, but she did recall something in particular.

A pair of eyes, similar to the bright green of the first leaf. Beautiful, but so angry. At what? She had no idea. She simply couldn't remember. Though she did in fact rember those beautiful green eyes changing, the green pooling away as a bright, powerful red took over, like the second leaf. Then she woke up.

Annabeth was suddenly pulled from her head when the distant rumble of the bus sounded from down the street. She quickly pulled out her book from her backpack, gently placing the leaves inside before closing it back up and stuffing it back into her pack.

She ran to the bus stop, barley catching it. When she sat down next to the redheaded mess known as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, her best and only friend, the girl examined her a moment, a sad look on her face.

"Are you okay, Annie?!" she says. "I heard what happened with your mom on TV today and I know it must be-"

"My mom?" Annabeth was incredibly confused. No one should know what happened last night. Only her family knew.

"The accident? It was all over the news. The rain, it messed up her vision. There was no way to save her. It was just down the street I think? There was a truck, it didn't see her. I don't know what happened to the truck driver. He may be in the hospital too. But I don't know. My mom turned of the TV before I could see. I just-"

Annabeth stopped listening after awhile.

Her mother was gone.

"Did anything happen last night, Annie?" Rachel asked as they pulled up to the school.

She considered telling her about the screaming. The slap she heard. Her mother running out into the rain, driving with tears down her face. Screaming out to try to get her back. That April woman who turned her nose up to her. Her father's scary smile. Even her strange dream with the beautiful changing eyes.

But she remained silent.

She was a good little girl.


	2. Chapter 2

**(This is like a week late but whatever)**

**this chapter goes out to my main girl Dixie, as a little birthday present! She's awesome and one of the coolest people I've ever have had the fortune of meeting. She is the queen of DC who holds a knife to my throat whenever I slack off my writing. Cheers to another year of fangirling, feels, and failing to realize Marvel is better than DC! :D**

* * *

"Mom, where are we going?"

"Away. Though just for a little while, Percy."

Sally Jackson looked away from the road for a split second to look at her little boy. He was her world, her little angel in the darkest of times. She smiled softly as he looked out of the passenger window, his ten year-old mind on probably much better things than what lurked in hers.

Damn! She and Paul had been fools to think they were safe. If only they had sent Percy away like Paul had insisted, then her and her late husband would've been out of the country and her little boy would be safe. But she hadn't had the strength to give up her boy. To give up her beautiful baby to some random family was purely unthinkable to her at the time. But now Paul was dead and her and Percy's lives were timed if she didn't get her boy over the border.

She would die before someone ever got their hands on Percy. He was all she had in the beginning, before their life had turned for the better, before Paul and their wonderful town. But now all that was gone. He was once again all she had. And she will never let him go.

"Mom, I'm hungry." Percy says, pulling her from her thoughts.

Sally bites her lip, debating on stopping or not. Her own stomach growled, causing her to frown. They were a half hour from the Canadian border, a quick pit stop at a gas station wouldn't be too much, would it?

"There should be a gas station not too far ahead, baby." Sally replies finally. "We'll stop there for a minute, just to pick up a snack. I'll get us something real good when we get to where we need to be, okay?"

"Okay." Percy says, pulling out one of his comic books. She smiled as he was quickly absorbed into its colorful pages. They may not have ever of had much, and her dear boy never complained, but she always managed to get him his precious comics. He never begged or whined for anything, but the way his eyes would light up when she surprised him with one was enough for her to realize how much he treasured them.

Anything to see him smile.

"Are you looking forward to Canada, baby?" She asks him, curious how he felt about the whole ordeal. He had know idea what was going on, so she wondered how this whole thing seemed to him.

"I guess." He replied. "I'm just gonna miss home."

"Well, I'm not."

He looked over at her with widened eyes. "What, why? I thought you loved our town."

"It _was _wonderful, Percy, it truly was. The house was cozy and the people were kind, but it wasn't my home." She looked over at her boy with loving eyes. "Your my home, Percy. Since the very day you were born."

"How so?"

"Well, there was this moment I had. It was the first time I was really able to look at you. The nurse handed you to me, and you were so quiet. Calculating, I always believe. So you just looked up at me, and your eyebrows, what there was of them at least, scrunched up the same way they do now whenever your thinking. But when I looked into your eyes, I knew then that I was gone. That anything and no one would ever matter to me more than you. You were my home. You still are, and you always will be."

A tear leaked down her cheek, and Percy leaned over and wiped it away. He smiled softly at her.

And despite this hellish situation, she smiled back.

* * *

Less than two minutes later the two had pulled up to a near abandoned 7-11, the only other customer in the store was a teen in the back looking through the sodas. The cashier, a very bored looking 20 something blonde, gave a half-hearted wave as they entered the small store.

A man in a cheap looking tie, the manager Percy assumed, was yelling at a couple of other teens near the counter, taking various items from their hands.

"Do you want to go to prison one day, boys?" The man scolded. The teens looked bored. "Because that's certainly where your going if you continue down this path! Theft! What if one day an alarm goes off just like this one did, but you didn't care? What if you _killed _someone to get away? Then your a murderer! Now let me tell you a story about a-"

Percy rolled his eyes, starting to feel bad for the teens.

"Get whatever you like, baby." Percy's mother told him.

"What do you want?" Percy asked.

His mother smiled. "Something blue and sweet." She kisses him on the head before turning to go talk to the cashier about refueling the car. Percy made his way through the store, picking up a soda on his way through. The teen that had been standing there glanced at him with dark, narrowed eyes. For a fraction of a second, the boy's eyes seemed to soften in the tiniest way as he took in the green-eyed child, but he had turned away near instantly the second he glanced over.

Percy found his way over to the sweets, trying to find something for him and his mother. _Blue and sweet. _The things his mother told him. The boy looked through the sweets, but couldn't find a single thing for his mother that suited her needs.

"Hey,"

Percy turned to see the sullen teenager again, his eyes still narrowed. He looked only a few years older than Percy, maybe fourteen, but his eyes held a sadness that reminded Percy of the Veterans that had lived in his neighborhood. So sad, memories of horrible things that it seemed pitiful to keep going. But they did.

"What on earth are you looking for?" the older boy asks, looking incredibly irritated by Percy's mere presence.

Percy crossed his skinny arms, eyes narrowing as well. "Why do you care? I don't know you. If your here to bully me than go away. I've dealt with kids twice your size and you don't scare me."

The teen's eyebrows nearly disappeared into the shaggy hair hanging over his forehead. He was obviously taken by surprise by the small boy. But he redeemed himself instantly, eye's darkening dangerously. "I don't necessarily _care, _but your causing quite the commotion back here. It's annoying."

"Blue and sweet," Percy sneers, surprising the other boy. A child having this much fire was near unheard of. "_That's_ what I'm looking for. Now why don't you just leave me alone so you don't have to be _annoyed, _or would you like to help me look?" The last part was sarcastic, but Percy was surprised when the boy turned over a pulled three blueberry muffins, hidden somewhere in the self where he had not seen them earlier.

"Like this?" The strange teen asks, tossing him two of the pastries. "It's technically blue, in a way. Sweet, most defiantly." He raised a brow at the green-eyed boy. "Don't you agree?"

Perry's narrowed eyes lost a bit of their edge, being slightly confused by the bizarre boy in front of him. "Yeah. Thanks-"

"Nico."

Percy cocked his head slightly as the teen, _Nico, _offered his hand. The boy shrugged before taking it into his much smaller own and shook.

"Percy."

The moment Percy touched Nico's hand, the older boy's eyes dilated, the brown being completely swept away under pools of black. It looked . . . unnatural. Nico's expression turned to one of shock, and then immediately back to indifference, the same moment the brown pooled back into his eyes. He dropped Percy's hand, a slight smile on his face. One Percy knew was fake. Forced.

"Well Percy," Nico says in a light tone that surprised the younger boy. "Have a good time in Canada. A really beautiful place, I would say . . ."

With that the teen turned and walked right out of the store, unpaid items still in hand.

Strangely, the none of the employees noticed.

It was only later, when he and his mother were pulling out of the station, that he had never said where he was going to Nico. Though he didn't have much time to dwell on it for a sleek, black Denali slammed into their car, throwing the unsuspecting mother and son off the road.

And then there was nothing.

* * *

_"LET ME GO!"_

_"Shut up, bitch."_

_A loud slap. Men chuckling._

_His mother's whimper of pain._

_"Mom . . ."_

_Everything hurts. I want it to go away. Why won't it go away?!_

_"Mom . . ."_

_The pain . . ._

Then there's nothingness once more.

* * *

Percy opened his eyes, feeling like gravity was working tenfold on him. His body felt like lead, and all he wanted to do was to just sneak into the dirt below him. Anything to make the pain stop. But his mother.

There was dirt under him. Corn stalks and stars above him. He stumbled up, his head pounding so painfully it was hard to focus on anything but the pain. But he managed to stand. The car was nowhere to be seen. Either was his mother.

Percy felt a sudden sharp pain in his stomach when he tried to take a step forward. He felt the area and hissed when his fingers lightly brushed over something cold and sharp. Glass shards, embedded into his stomach. Had he flown out the windshield?

A distant scream pierced the air.

Percy spun towards the sound, ignoring the immense pang it brought on. There was just stalks all around him, but he chanced it and dove in, towards the sound of his mother's cries. He was running as fast as he could, the pain so intense it nearly crippled him, but he wouldn't stop.

He broke out into a clearing, a barn a few dozen yards away. Random farming supplies littered the area, a stripped tractor with all its parts circling it a couple feet away. He made a step towards the barn when someone grabbed him from behind and threw him.

The world did a three-sixty, white hot pain blistering all over the child's body.

"Finally found you, brat." His attacker laughed from above him before grabbing Percy by his shoulders and lifting him up to his level.

"They sent me out to find you," the man whispered into Percy's ear, his arm banding around the boys waist while his hand painfully dug itself into his wild raven mane, pulling at it hard enough to mark Percy hiss in pain as he pitifully struggled against him. The man chuckled.

"Its been hours, and I've had to miss whatever fun things their doing to your mommy. But I guess I can manage. From the pictures the other guys have shown me, your pretty enough . . ."

Before the man could do anything more, a horrible scream sounded from the barn, making Percy's mind tunnel on only one thing; his mother.

His attacker snorted."Ah, sounds like their having a blast-"

He was unexpectedly cut off when Percy viciously flung his head back, slamming the man right in the forehead. He dropped instantly, dumping Percy as well. The boy, after recovering from massive head rush, pulled him back into the cover of the stalks, hiding him for the moment. He hears voices and peeks out to see three men exiting the barn, all bloody and grinning.

"Mikey!" one called out. The other two made their way towards the back of the rickety building. "Come on man, we gotta bounce before the feds get here! Any second now some old, farming shithead will find the bitches car and they'll be all over the place."

The two other men reappeared in a big black Denali, the three calling out for another five minutes before shrugging at each other, one setting off a match and sticking at the barn, and driving off, plowing their own way threw the field.

What great friends you got there Mikey, Percy thought as he looked smugly down at the unconscious man.

The boy then ran towards the now flaming barn, bursting through the door to have his whole world pulled from right under his feet.

His mother was sprawled on the dirt floor, her blood staining any dirt within five feet of her. She was naked, bloody and just _broken. _Percy stumbled to her, dropping down beside her as he tore off his jacket to cover what he could. Smoke was filling the room fast but he barley noticed it, his eyes only on the broken woman in front of him.

He carefully pulled her head over to face him and it rolled lifelessly, him gasping in horror at what he saw.

Her eyes, always loving and alive and smiling, looked up at him lifelessly. Blood leaked from her mouth, dripping into the dirt to create a sick, thick red puddle.

_"M-mom," _Percy whispered. When she wouldn't answer he only spoke louder. "Mom!"

"You can't do this, Mom! You can't! What about blue pancakes? Who's going to make blue pancakes for me? No one can make them except you! How about wanting to see the next episode of that show you love? Um, ! Don't you wanna figure out what happens? How about seeing me graduate, or getting married or even grandkids! What about all that?"

He started to angrily pound his fists into the dirt, his nostrils filling with smoke and shot as tears poured down his face. His cheeks grew red with the heat and his own rage.

"What about home?" He hissed. "You can't leave your home. You can't leave _me. _Did you ever think what I thought about that? Maybe the first time I saw your eyes, that I was put into your arms I realized I was gone. The way you'd smile when I was irritated because you thought it was adorable. Or when I'd have a nightmare you'd carry me into your room and you'd give me blue cookies and sing to me as I fell back asleep. You are my mom! You are _my _mom! You-"

The sobs and smoke were to overwhelming and Percy turned over quickly and puked, the bile speckled in blood.

He looked back at her, those dead eyes hitting him right in the core.

_"YOU ARE MY HOME!" _he screamed, his own body screaming at him but e didn't stop. He couldn't. _"YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MY HOME! DO YOU JUST EXPECT ME TO FIND A NEW ONE? NO! YOU WILL ALWAYS, ALWAYS, BE MY HOME. MY MOM."_

The smoke, pain and screaming finally took its toll as Percy collapsed, his last sight being his mother's dead eyes and two pairs of legs standing behind her.

And Percy hoped that this nothingness would lead him to death. To his mother.

To home.

* * *

Percy dreamed of grey eyes and fire. A sadistic grin and people screaming. It felt . . . right.

"Wake up, Jackson."

The boy slowly opened his eyes to see someone standing over him.

Nico.

The teen's face was ashen and his eyes looked upon Percy with such deep knowing sadness that the entire night came rushing back to him. He quickly stood up and looked over to see the ashen remains of the barn.

His mother was gone.

"Percy," Nico says, obviously trying to pull the boy from his grief. "I'm here to help you. You just have to listen."

"Listen?" Percy turned to him, eyes flashing. With nothing else to vent his grief out, it quickly turned to anger. Which was directed to Nico. "Why should I listen to you? I wanted to die in there! Wasn't that much obvious? Why did you pull me out of there? Why are you even here? How on earth did you find me? Why did you find me? I don't even-

"Percy, if you just let me explain-"

Nick was cut off by the fist connecting with his jaw. The boy may have been small but he sure was mighty. The older boy stumbled, taken completely by surprise. He looked up at the enraged little boy and honestly felt fear. His green eyes were flashing dangerously, blood soaked into his clothing hair, the raven locks a wild tangled mess while his face was caked with blood and soot. He looked so wild and vicious it scared Nico.

"I WANTED TO DIE WITH HER, GOD DAMNIT." Percy snapped. "I have nothing now. Nothing! I had a chance to just leave and be with her forever. No pain, no suffering, nothing! Why would you take that chance from me?"

"Because, you can accomplish so much more, boy."

A man stepped into the clearing and Percy literally felt the temperature drop. It was enough to give him chills. The man wore a fine black silk suit, with slicked black hair and a square jaw. He wore slick sunglasses and a easy smile, one that made Percy wary immediately.

"Who are you?" He asks.

"I'm simply a very important man," he says simply. "I heard about your incident from one of my workers, Nico, and just had to stop by to see for myself."

_"Incident?"_

"Look, boy," the man continued as if Percy had not spoken. "I have an important business to run. And I'm in need of boys like you. See, Nico is nice and all, but he's simply too soft. I need a certain someone for a certain job. That looks like you."

"Why should I? I don't know you, or this 'job'." Percy hissed. The man simply smiled.

"Now, what if I were to say I could give you unlimited life and the power to kill those who wronged you? Such as this scrum."

Nico pulled a tied up man, Mikey, in front of Percy and dropping him. The man was starting to wake up.

Percy's vision turned red the moment the man opened his eyes. He grabbed to nearest thing, a big heavy gear sitting out from the broken tractor and slammed the metal against the man's jaw. Then his eyes. Over and over again.

Percy saw his mother, smiling and loving.

Then he sees her cold and dead.

Because he couldn't save her. Because he was weak. Because of Mikey and his little friends. He will kill them all, one by one. For her. His home. His mother. Over and over again. Over and over. Over and over. Over and over . . .

While in his rage, the man grinned at the little psychotic boy.

"He's perfect."

Nico watched on with sad eyes as Percy beat the man over and over again. The boy was gone. He would never be a little boy again.

_Over and over, over and over, over and over._

_Until there's nothing left._


	3. Chapter 3

"I can't believe it! We're seniors, Annie, _seniors._"

"Mhmm."

Rachel looked over at her, green eyes bright with that constant enthusiasm as they waited for the bus together. Enthusiasm that hasn't dialed down since school had started a week ago. It seemed as if Rachel still couldn't believe it. Annabeth just wanted the whole year to be over with already.

She hears some snickering behind her and holds back a cry of defeat. Drew walked up from behind her and Rachel, her little lackeys following close behind. She had a sneer plastered on her pretty face, making Annabeth want to just curl into herself and hide forever. That sneer always meant Annabeth's day was going to get a lot worst.

"Oh look, it's the blonde bitch," Drew says, sending the other girls into a cackling fit. "I bet she's just waiting to go home and cut her wrists, as usual. I would know."

"I don't-"

"Bitch, did I ask for your opinion?" Drew snapped when the blonde tried to defend herself. When she silenced once more the other girl smiled a smile dripping with acidic honey. "That's what I thought, bitch."

The girls cackled once more as they entered the bus that had pulled up, Annabeth and Rachel behind.

"My mom is picking me up," Rachel says suddenly, breaking her silence. Annabeth knew she should've been hurt Rachel hadn't defended her, but she just couldn't bring herself to care anymore.

"See you tomorrow then," Annabeth says before turning and entering the bus, taking the nearest empty seat. The bus was loud, as always, and Annabeth tried to block them all out as she starred out the window, watching the town streak by as the bus drove.

The bus was just driving through a green light in the intersection when one of the senior boys, Annabeth couldn't remember his name, stood up in the aisle.

"The fuck is up with that truck?!" He shouted as a semi barreled down the road to the right of the bus, straight at then. There were screams of panic before there was nothing but darkness, Annabeth's last thought being 'So this is how I die?'

There was a flash of green in the darkness, eyes maybe, then it was nothingness once more.

* * *

"Excuse me, sir? I was wondering if you could help me."

Bobby Willis turned over in his barstool to see a young woman standing behind him. His eyes widened as he took her in. Big bright teal eyes surrounded by dark lashes and eyeliner, right under a pair of nicely arched brows. Blood red lips and a piercing on her nose and a few on her ear. Long chocolate hair done in that scene style, with the one side shaved off, and a slightly curvy body with a bigger bust under a red crop top and a biker jacket. Bobby let his eyes trail down the pale expanse of her lower stomach( a black belly button ring and some bloody flower tattoo that were quite distracting) to her ripped skinny jeans and tall, heeled biker boots.

Hell yeah he could help her.

"What is it, sweetheart?" He asks, lighting up his most charming smile. He was glad the bar was having an especially slow night. Most men would have started a fight to take this girl home.

"Well," she says a sheepishly. "I kinda went out with a couple friends, and they drove me, so I have no idea where I am. I was just wondering if you could point me in the right direction."

She told him her address and he was thrilled to find out she lived close by. Some real ritzy part of New York, somewhere he'd never even have the chance to live.

"Well, how about I just escort you there?" Bobby suggests. "Little lady like yourself could wind up in real trouble in the city this late."

The woman looked flattered. "My God, how thoughtful!" She gushed, grinning a sexy smile. "I'm Murry."

"Bobby, Bobby Willis."

So he led the woman through the city, not really paying attention to anything she was saying and instead focusing on where they were going and her bust. It wasn't until they were about five minutes from her apartment when an ambulance flew by, lights flashing.

"I wonder what happened," Murry wondered aloud. "Hopefully it isn't anything like that accident a couple weeks ago."

Bobby looked over at her. "What accident?"

His senses were on high alert. Could she know? No, that's impossible. How could she? They have only just met, and it wasn't like they had caught him or anything . . .

"The one where the drunk driver had rolled the other car off the road," she continued. Bobby nearly froze. "Two children and their mother, dead because of some asshole who couldn't get hammered closer to home."

"I wonder how that man feels, how he lives with himself." Murry says, not seeming to notice her guides distress. "I wonder what he thinks, while he's doing everyday things. When he's having lunch or going to work, how can he carry on like it's okay? Or when he goes drinking and tries to get into some poor woman's pants, does it help him forget?"

Bobby froze. Murry only stopped a step after, her back to him.

"Because I can assure him that no one forgets. No one."

Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and a knife plunged through his heart, his life ending before he could even get a true grip on what the woman was saying. His body hunched over, his murderer gripping him tighter as he pulled the blade from his heart.

Murry turns and smiles at him, eyes flashing gleefully.

"Well aren't you dramatic?" Percy pulls the body into the alley where he had been waiting, stuffing it into the trunk of his car.

"That's what makes it fun," Murry grins, following him.

"So can I call you Murry too?" The man asks.

She frowns. "Oh hell no. Only Grayson can, and you know that. It's McManus, so stop trying."

Percy rolled his eyes as they entered the car and backed out of the alley. "Where is Grayson anyway, _Mc? _I'm surprised you even volunteered to help this time."

"She's on another fuckin' anime binge. I would of joined her but the cover looked real fruity, and I figured you'd want some help with Nico out on that scout with Thalia."

Percy frowned at the mention of the boy. Nico, his usual companion in his work, had been acting strange lately. Quieter, not like it bothered Percy since he himself found people who liked being loud as fuck annoyed the shit out of him, but it was noticeable. In the back of his mind Percy hoped this job with Thalia would help. Thalia just kind of had that way with people of just scaring their feelings out of them.

"I do usually do this alone, Mc." He looks over at her as she pulls out her phone, dialing Grayson, he guessed. He sped the vehicle through traffic, knowing exactly where to go and wanting to get there as soon as possible. Even with the plastic wrap in his trunk, he really didn't want any dead smell back there. Shit smelled awful and McManus would tease him until Grayson finally told her to stop, like last time.

"It doesn't mean you _have _to do it alone," the woman replies, tucking her phone away. "Its fun to lead them on. Don't see why you can't have a little fun with it."

"Its not supposed to be fun."

"Are you really telling _me_ that,of all people?" She raised a brow at him.

He shrugged. "Point taken. Is Grayson meeting us up?"

"Yeah," McManus replies as they pull into a secluded parking lot, not a single soul lingering by. "She'll be here any moment to pick me up."

"Good," Percy says as he steps out of the car. "Let's get this done quickly before some drunk stumbles by. Then we'll have two bodies to deal with."

While McManus heads for the alley a few yards away to grab the supplies, Percy goes back into the trunk and quickly and precisely folds the plastic wrap over the body and pulls the meat over his shoulder, not a drop of blood spilled. He heads toward where the woman had disappeared and found her in the alleyway, hand on a switch and a hefty bag of lime over her shoulder.

He nods and she flips the switch, the asphalt in between them opening into a body-sized chute, plunging into the earth and darkness below. Percy opened the plastic enough for McManus to pour the lime over the body, the man then sliding the body into the chute. McManus grinned as she flipped the switch once more, the asphalt sliding back into place.

"What?" Percy asks as they exit the alley and enter the parking lot.

"Don't you think it's funny no one had found this yet?" She says as they throw the now empty bag of lime into the dumpster. "I know these buildings are privately owned by the business and the disposal goes right down into the ground, but it's just funny that no one has been even suspicious."

"Well anyone who has has ended up in that chute themselves, correct?" Percy states darkly.

"Point taken." McManus grins as she echoes his earlier statement, making him frown and roll his eyes.

Another vehicle pulled into the lot, a black Impala that stood out next to Percy's V12. A woman peered outside at them, obviously not in the mood to chat. Percy could understand.

McManus' grin widened. "Well, there's my ride. 'Surprised she even left the house. You know how she gets when we binge watch."

"You do it too,Mc." Percy pointed out.

"You make it sound like a bad thing." She hurries towards her ride before he could reply, hearing laughter and playful bickering from inside the vehicle before they sped off into the night.

Probably to spend the next twelve hours on Netflix and order pizza, no doubt, Percy thought. Those girl's seriously had issues. But they had each other, and had lasted this long, so he never doubted them.

Suddenly his phone buzzed from within his pocket, snapping him from his thoughts. He picked it up and opened it.

A text, from someone simply labeled "Boss". Another job.

School bus accident, only one of the brats had died.

Well he'll just have to fix that.


End file.
